Dolby Laboratories --which got its start by improving the sound of recorded audio with its debut of Dolby A-type noise reduction--has turned 40 years old.

In 1972, Dolby introduced its first cinema products, the Model 364, and by end of the disco decade, had debuted its first multichannel audio technology, Dolby Stereo. "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" were two blockbuster movies to feature this technology. Today, approximately 78,000 Dolby cinema processors have been sold worldwide.

The company recently introduced Dolby Digital Cinema which was commercially launched in select cinemas worldwide with the release of "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith."